A Girl and Boy with a Bird's Nest and Birdcage

The presumed prototype was sold at Lepke, Berlin, 4 December 1906, lot 70, pl. 11 (see E. Berckenhagen et al., Antoine Pesne, Berlin, 1958, no. 251a, pl. 232); that picture is rectangular, though of similar dimensions (135 x 110cm.).

Berckenhagen, loc. cit., identifies the young girl as Ilse Sophie von Platen (1736-1776), who was supposedly the prettiest servant of the Queen Mother, Sophie Dorothea of Prussia. She married Karl Friedrich von Kraut, Court Marshal to Prince Heinrich, in 1756, and Count Dietrich Hubert van Verelst, the Dutch ambassador in Berlin in 1773.